Flashing monster of the sea shows it's not a damp squid

0 Comments | AFP, February, 2007

PARIS (AFP) — Huge deep-sea squid use blinding flashes of light from their armtips to disorientate their prey before attacking at speed, Japanese researchers have reported.

Using a newly-developed underwater high-definition video camera, a team led by Tsunemi Kubodera of the National Science Museum in Tokyo recorded the first live images of the mesopelagic large squid, Taningia danae.

These eight-armed creatures inhabit the ocean to depths of a thousand metres (3,250 feet) and can grow more than 2.3 metres (7.5 feet) and weigh 60 kilos (132 pounds) or more.

Far from being sluggish and neutrally buoyant, T. danae can swim nimbly backwards and forwards by flapping its large muscular triangular fins, and can turn in a jiffy thanks to its flexible body,...